After 84 days at sea, Frenchman Bernard Stamm and Swiss sailor Jean Le Cam have not only won the double-handed Barcelona World Race, but set a new record for the event, which was first established in 2007.

Few races have captured our imagination here at SAIL as much as the recently announced Race to Alaska (R2AK), which kicks off on June 4 in Port Townsend, Washington, and takes competitors to Ketchikan, Alaska, a distance of 750 miles, with a one-day pit stop in Victoria, British Columbia.

An estimated 50,000 race fans packed both the docks and harbor as the seven-boat 2014-15 Volvo Ocean Race fleet set out on the event’s first offshore leg from Alicante, Spain, to Cape Town, South Africa.

If there was ever any doubt Team Alvimedica and its young American leaders—skipper Charlie Enright and watch captain Mark Towill—were ready for the 2014-25 Volvo Ocean Race, those doubts were put to rest Saturday as the team won the opening in-port event in Alicante, Spain.

In 2014-15, the sailors not only have to deal with an all-new boat and new stopover ports, there has also been a major change to the way the event is scored. What follows is a brief guide to the nuts and bolts of the 2014-15 VOR, so you’ll be able to follow the action out on the water that much better.